Here’s a Recap of Glenn Beck’s Awesome New 3D Printer: The Implications and What He Plans to Make

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Glenn Beck teased his acquisition of a new, MakerBot 3D printer on TheBlaze TV Monday, but it was on Tuesday’s radio show that he really that he really started getting into the implications such technology will have in the near future.

On the Glenn Beck Radio Program Tuesday morning, Beck talked of what such a machine would mean for patents, original artwork, currency and more. He asked whether the world is philosophically, morally ready for the capabilities of mainstream 3D printing, but went to say “it doesn’t matter,” because the tech is already here.

Beck with the MakerBot 3D printer, one of the newest items added to his American Dream Labs.

“This is Napster. This is Napster for physical things,” Beck said, comparing the capabilities of the printers to the music pirating website that for a short time allowed users to illegally download music they hadn’t paid for.

During the program, the MakerBot replicator 2 was printing a miniature shark, the standard object it makes as a test print to show you that everything is working properly. The team scanned the skull that sits on Beck’s desk for 3D printing and a gun as well.

“Not a working gun,” Beck pointed out. “But you can make weapons with this. You can make anything with this. This is going to be highly, highly regulated. This changes everything. There are no patents anymore.”

Shark printed using the MarkerBot on the Glenn Beck Radio Program.

TheBlaze has reported frequently of late on the issue of 3D-printed guns. A group called Defense Distributed is working on a project called Wiki-Weapons that would create a workable, fully 3D-printed gun. Their plan is to test and refine the design and post the instructions for how to print it for free on the Web.

But, as Beck pointed out on his morning radio show, many websites where 3D printer designs are posted have begun banning gun and gun component designs. Defense Distributed, in response to such designs being banned on MakerBot’s Thingiverse, began hosting such files on its own website DEFCAD, which the founder told TheBlaze Tuesday has seen heavy traffic since its creation in December.

As for Beck’s printer, now that it is part of his American Dreams Labs, we can expect to hear more discussion about the implications of such technology, as well as see more of what he intends to make with it.

Watch Beck talk about the 3D printer on Tuesday’s show:

You can see Beck’s debut of the 3D printer in his American Dream Labs in this clip from Monday’s show on TheBlaze TV (skip to 1:28 to see it featured):